ENVISAT, successfully launched this morning from the European spaceport at Kourou, French Guyana, by an Ariane 5 rocket, is the largest and most sophisticated Earth observation satellite ever built in Europe. From an altitude of 800 km, the 8.2-ton Environment Satellite – Europe’s new “eyes in space” – will deliver an unprecedented wealth of images and data that will help scientists better understand the Earth, and assist European Union decision-makers in reaching environmental and other policy goals

The eagerly awaited launch of ESA’s Envisat environmental monitoring satellite took place in Kourou, French Guiana, today at 22:07:59 hrs Kourou time (02:07:59 hrs CET). Envisat’s spectacular night-time launch also marked the return to business for Europe’s Ariane 5 launcher.

Lift-off was witnessed by dozens of cheering engineers, scientists and project members at the launch site and at ESA centres across Europe. Rising into a clear sky, the Ariane 5 propelled the Envisat towards a lofty v

Alcoholics, especially those who relapse after frequent attempts to “dry out”, are damaging areas of their brain that recognise emotions, a University of Sussex study suggests.

Research on people’s responses to photographs of different emotional facial expressions shows that heavy drinkers who had previously tried to kick the bottle are more likely than either non-alcoholics, or alcoholics who had not previously experienced withdrawal symptoms, to read fear and sadness in all emotional expre

Scientists at the University of Sussex have provided the key to resolving a 30-year-old controversy in evolutionary biology: what proportion of the differences between similar species came about as a result of natural selection, and how many are just the result of ‘random genetic drift’. In a paper in this week’s issue of Nature (28 February), Sussex biologists put the ratio at 45:55.

The DNA sequences of humans and chimpanzees differ by less than 2% but this adds up to about 350,000 amino a

A space probe carrying British-designed and operated instruments has helped scientists to understand the magnetosphere surrounding Jupiter better than ever before.

Its magnetosphere was observed to contract in response to shock waves generated at the Sun, the first time scientists have been able to clearly observe how changes in the solar wind affect the magnetosphere of this giant planet.

In addition an unexplained pulsating X-ray hot spot near Jupiter’s North pole has been obser

Researchers have developed a sophisticated way of measuring the print quality of paper. The work, published today in the Institute of Physics journal, Measurement Science and Technology, describes how Jari Palviainen and colleagues at the Universities of Joensuu and Oulu in Finland, use what is known as a diffractive optical element-based sensor to investigate how laser-light interacts with paper before and after laser printing with colour ink.

The physical properties of paper such as colou